Free Dream When You're Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg Page B

“Ma? What are we celebrating?
Ma!”
    But Margaret was already in the kitchen; they heard the banging of pots and pans.
    Louise knelt before Binks and embraced him, then stood to hug the other brothers. “I have just gotten a ring. A diamond engagement ring!”
    Billy’s forehead crinkled. “But Kitty said it was from Julian. Are you engaged to Julian now? Boy, Michael’s going to be mad!”
    “But I like Michael,” Tommy said, alarmed, and Binks began to cry, saying he liked Michael, too.
    “For the love of God, will someone tell me what’s going on here?” Frank said.
    Kitty clapped her hands. “Listen to me! Everybody! Julian helped Michael get a ring for Louise. It was a secret; it was left for me to pick up at the jeweler’s so I could give it to her. I just now did.”
    “Well, what in the world are you doing giving it to her in the middle of the
night
?” Frank asked.
    Kitty sighed loudly. “It was supposed to be
private
!”
    “Sure, a family’s no place for privacy!” Frank said, hiking up his pajama bottoms.
    From downstairs came their mother’s voice. “Come down for cocoa and toast, everyone! Spread with real butter, by God!”
    “Make me a cup of real coffee, Margaret!” Frank bellowed.
    “You’ll be up all night!” she answered.
    Frank looked at Louise, tears in his eyes. “And wouldn’t I be anyway? With such grand news arriving?” He took her into his arms. “I’ve been living for the moment to say this: ‘May the saddest day of your future together be no worse than the happiest day of your past.’” Over Louise’s head, his eyes met Kitty’s. She looked away, then back at him. She, too, had thought she’d be first. But maybe her mother was right in saying that even as Billy, the oldest boy, was the least mature of the sons, she was the “youngest” of the daughters.
    “Louise?” Billy said.
    She stepped away from her father. “Yes?”
    “I just wanted to say, ‘As you slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never point in the wrong direction.’” He cleared his throat and reached out to shake her hand. Louise shook it solemnly. And then, as their mother yelled up at all of them that this was the last time she was calling or she’d eat every last bite herself, Louise said to Billy, “Race you downstairs?” He grinned.
    “Wait, Louise, I have one!” Binks said. “I have one, too!” And he told her, “A turkey never voted for an early Thanksgiving.”
    “Ah,” Louise said. “Well, thank you very much, Binks.”
    And then she and Billy raced for the kitchen, Binks and Tommy following close behind.
    Frank held out his elbows for Kitty and Tish, and they moved slowly downstairs together. These were the steps that Louise would walk down with her father when she married Michael. Apparently Tish was thinking the same thing, for she began humming the Wedding March. Kitty broke loose to chase after her brothers. “I’ll beat you all!” she cried.
             
    AT THREE A.M., THE SISTERS WERE STILL AWAKE, too excited to sleep. They lay whispering to one another, Louise at the foot of the bed, Kitty and Tish at the head. Tish told Louise, “Now you’ll have to do it, and you’ll see what it feels like.”
    Louise laughed. “It’s not a question of have to. I want to!”
    “You do?” Tish asked. “You want his thing in you?”
    “Of course!”
    “Ew,” Kitty said, yawning.
    “He’ll be my husband. I love him. Sex is part of love.”
    Tish sat up. “See? They just say that to make you feel better. But it really hurts. I know that for a fact.”
    “How do
you
know?” Kitty asked. She sat up; then Louise did, too.
    “Because I heard
all about it,
that’s how.” Tish crossed her legs Indian-style and began picking at a toenail.
    “Stop that!” Kitty said. “If I find another one of your toenails in this bed, I’m going to show it to every guy you meet at the next dance. I mean it. I’ll carry it around in a little box like a